Bench

Sophomore point guard Terrell Stoglin wasn't in the starting lineup against UNC-Wilmington, with freshman Nick Faust (City) taking his place. But after the Terps failed to score on their first three possessions -- two turnovers and a bad shot by Faust -- Stoglin was off the bench and in the game with a little over 17 minutes left. There was no reason given by an athletic department spokesman for what appeared to be Stoglin's benching. He and new coach Mark Turgeon certainly have distinctly different ideas about how the point guard position is supposed to be played, with Stoglin thinking its called the points guard and Turgeon, a former point guard himself under Larry Brown at Kansas, looking for someone who thinks pass first.

In the wake of his team's fourth straight loss and its 13th in 14 games, Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden addressed a host of problems during his Monday news conference, including potential lineup changes and the need for vast improvement in third-down efficiency and the running game. Gruden did not specify which players or positions might be in flux but said he does not intend to replace starting quarterback Kirk Cousins with third-stringer Colt McCoy . In Sunday's 30-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Redskins' ninth defeat in a row on the road, Cousins threw three interceptions in the fourth quarter.

Women continued to make small gains in the number of judgeship positions held nationwide this year - particularly in Maryland - though they're far from reaching parity with men, according to a report released Monday. Roughly 27.1 percent of the country's state and federal judges are female, up from 26.6 percent in 2011 and 26.1 percent in 2010, a study from the University at Albany Center for Women in Government & Civil Society showed. The increase was led by a small rise of 0.7 percent in state judgeships and offset slightly by a decline of 0.1 percent in federal positions.

When a 60-year-old amateur historian died in February, dozens of Linthicum Heights residents decided they wanted to do something to remember the man who remembered and preserved the history of their community. Oscar "Skip" Booth was a local librarian, former president of the Ann Arrundell County Historical Society and had recently written his 100th historical "vignette" about Linthicum when he died unexpectedly of complications from a stroke. Soon after Booth's death, members of the Linthicum-Shipley Historic Association, a nonprofit that funds community projects, hatched the plan to build a memorial bench and place it along a local trail, said Kate Graf, secretary-treasurer of the group.

The problem: A bench at a Randallstown bus stop is broken. The back story: Certified nursing assistant Roslyn DeGraffinreid, 64, works long hours at a Randallstown nursing home before catching the bus home. She says she and other riders like to sit as they wait for the No. 54 to arrive in the 9100 block of Liberty Road. But the wooden bench at the stop has been broken for at least two years, she says, and a second bench is starting to fail. "Now it's more elderly people," she said.

In the midst of a streak of 16 hitless at-bats, which included nine strikeouts, third baseman Mark Reynolds found himself on the bench Tuesday, the night after a scheduled off day for the club. "I just want him to take a breather mentally and let him focus on some things he wants to get better at," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter . Reynolds, who is hitting .125 with 22 strikeouts in 48 at-bats this season, was replaced in the lineup and at third base by rookie Ryan Flaherty . Showalter said getting some playing time for Flaherty, who has one start and has played in four games, also had something to do with the lineup decision.

The names of four candidates for a Howard County Circuit Court judgeship, two of them attorneys in the county prosecutor's office and two who hear juvenile and other matters for the court, have been forwarded to Gov. Martin O'Malley by a committee that vets applicants for the bench. Judge Diane O. Leasure, who has been a Circuit Court judge since 1995, is leaving this week, though she is expected to return to hear cases in retirement. The governor must select a judge from the list given to him by the Judicial Nominating Commission.

Maryland center Alex Len came off the bench Wednesday after being a starter in the previous eight games. Len was nursing a sore ankle. Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said Friday that the 7-footer may not start against Virginia Tech on Saturday, even though the ankle seems healed. "We brought him off the bench (against Duke). I'm pretty sure I'm going to do that again tomorrow and just see if that helps him relax," Turgeon said. As you can tell, that's not set in stone. Len picked up two quick fouls against the Blue Devils and his playing time was limited.

If the bye week proves beneficial for the strained ligaments in the toe on Ben Grubbs' right foot, the expectation is that Grubbs will resume his role as the starting left guard when the Houston Texans visit the Ravens on Oct. 16. That would seem to leave Andre Gurode, the five-time Pro Bowl center who has made two consecutive starts at left guard in Grubbs' absence, out of the mix for the front five. But coach John Harbaugh sounded determined to find a role for Gurode even after Grubbs' return.

On February 24, 2005, WILLIAM P. SR.;devoted husband of 50 years to Mary T. Bench; loving father of William P. Bench Jr., Jane Bench, Debra Kunaniec, and Donna Heying; father-in-law of Richard Heying; grandfather of Christopher, Jessie, and Patrick Heying; also survived by three brothers and a sister. Service and interment private. A Memorial Service will be scheduled for a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials in his name to Seasons Hospice, Palliative Care of Maryland, 7008 Security Boulevard, Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21244 or The American Cancer Society.

Tonight is Crush Davis Action Figure night at Camden Yards, with the first 10,000 fans 14 and under getting a plastic action figure of Chris Davis as a caped crusader. The real Davis will begin the game on the bench. Last year's Most Valuable Oriole is hitting just .196 with 125 strikeouts in 321 at-bats this year. With Seattle's tough, young left-hander James Paxton on the mound, the left-handed-hitting Davis wasn't in the starting lineup. The first baseman also has been dealing with a flu virus that caused him to miss two full games earlier this week.

James Rogers Miller Jr., a former state delegate from Montgomery County who spent 15 years as a federal district judge in Baltimore, died of congestive heart failure June 25 at HeartFields Assisted Living at Easton. He was 83. "Judge Miller was an outstanding and brilliant jurist," said U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander, who clerked for Judge Miller in the 1970s. "He tirelessly and skillfully pursued the just resolution of every case. He had an unwavering commitment to the rule of law and an uncompromising integrity.

Alice Johnson noticed the checker boards that recently popped up behind her house, a neat brick rowhouse in the Barclay neighborhood of Baltimore. "People will definitely use them," she said. "I play. I wish I could play chess, too. " She should have time to learn. The boards have been etched permanently into 1,000-pound slabs of marble in a new community courtyard. The stones are salvaged steps from several area houses, and the artist who placed them in the courtyard hopes they become a new kind of Baltimore front steps - where urban dwellers have long gathered, told stories and played games.

Among the 80 percent of registered Republicans and Democrats who stayed away from Maryland's primary was Sally Staehle of Baltimore. She wrote me a letter to explain why she took a pass on voting this time around. "I turned off to local politics when I saw a commercial of an empty podium at a debate, with a voice-over that said somebody didn't bother to show up for the debate, how can we trust him? I just couldn't bear to even try to figure out what that was all about. I don't even remember who the commercial was for. " You can understand Staehle's reluctance to waste mental energy on a campaign ad. But it would not have been hard to figure that one out. What I assume Staehle saw was a TV spot slamming Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown for skipping the WBFF-TV debate a few days earlier.

For the first time in eight years, Baltimore's judges face a challenger at the polls, a former city prosecutor who aims to knock veteran judge Alfred Nance from the bench. Page Croyder, 58, said she is running for election because of what she sees as Nance's lack of decorum on the bench and poor treatment of women who come into his courtroom. "I'm running because I care about the judiciary and I think people deserve judges who are going to treat them respectfully," Croyder said.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. Two people seated on a bench in the Loch Raven Plaza were robbed at gunpoint on June 4, police reports state. According to the report, the pair were approached at the shopping center in the 800 block of Tyalor Avenue by two armed men at about 11:30 p.m. and robbed of an iPhone and headphones.

For the first time in eight years, Baltimore's judges face a challenger at the polls, a former city prosecutor who aims to knock veteran judge Alfred Nance from the bench. Page Croyder, 58, said she is running for election because of what she sees as Nance's lack of decorum on the bench and poor treatment of women who come into his courtroom. "I'm running because I care about the judiciary and I think people deserve judges who are going to treat them respectfully," Croyder said.

The visiting Los Angeles Sparks lost, 79-76, to the Connecticut Sun despite a team-high 19 points off the bench from guard Kristi Toliver (Maryland). Tina Charles had 22 points and 23 rebounds for the Sun, who got 17 from Renee Montgomery and 16 each from Asjha Jones and Kara Lawson. The game was tied with a little over two minutes remaining, but Montgomery hit a driving layup with 35.8 seconds left and made two free throws with time running down to seal the game. Toliver shot 7-for-17 from the field, including 4-for-7 on 3-point attempts.

Even to the most die-hard Orioles fan -- even the ones most blinded by the darkest orange-and-black colored shades -- Manny Machado's bat fling on Sunday afternoon had to seem a little weird. Machado said after the Orioles' 11-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics that his bat left his grasp and twirled down the third-base line in play unintentionally . But when you look at the play, Machado swung the bat nowhere close to the pitch low and inside. His swing also was extremely late.

The Orioles were schooled Sunday afternoon in an 11-1 rout at Camden Yards by an Oakland Athletics team that boasts the best record in the American League. And if this series were a barometer to gauge where the Orioles measured up against the high-flying Athletics, the test ended in ugly fashion. Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez was wildly inefficient, lasting just 2 1/3 innings. He left his shortest outing of the season after giving up six runs in the third inning. The Orioles issued a season-high 11 walks, the most they've allowed in nearly six years.